Little girls and wishes

When One was in about second or third grade, her grandmother – my Mom - sent her and her sister  Disney princess costumes for Halloween. They were orders of magnitude grander and more expensive than anything we could have afforded at that point and One decided she wanted to wear hers for her class costume party.

Being a good Dad and a total pushover, I agreed to deliver the Belle costume to One at Stevenson Elementary at the appropriate time.  Having signed in at the front office, I was walking toward the classroom costume in hand when two little girls of approximately pretend-Belle age came around the corner and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the costume of their dreams.

Seeing the longing on their little faces, I quickly ran through my options:

·         Instantly produce two more Belle costumes;

·         Work out a sharing arrangement that allowed each of them to Trick or Treat in their own neighborhoods, with me running back and forth with the costume;

·         Skulk off toward my daughter’s classroom;

·         Die.

I may have told you the story to this point before. What I haven’t told you is that at odd moments, such as when Two is about to leave for another several months at school on the other side of the continent, I find myself wondering about those two little girls. My little girl got to be Belle that day and now she works at the magical place they all dreamed of back when.

How did things turn out for those would be Belles from Stevenson? I hope well. I hope they still pretend and that one day they’ll be able to provide the perfect costume for their own little girls.

Every little girl deserves to be Belle just once in her life.